John J. Long '28 (Basketball, Football, Basketball Coach)

Inducted 1977

Before John Long became the first Catholic University basketball
coach to lead his team to the NCAA Tournament, he helped form the
nucleus of the 1925-28 “Reindeer.” Teaming with fellow
1977 CUA Hall of Fame inductees Ray Foley, Jim Carney and Bill
Harvey, Long and the “Reindeer” produced a 38-17 (.691)
record. The “Big Four” played together under Fred Rice,
Sr. for four seasons, including their first year on the freshman
team.

Long, who played forward and was nicknamed “Bear,”
was the Cardinals’ leading scorer as a sophomore in 1925-26
with 160 points on 67 field goals and 26 free throws. He tallied 21
points in a 51-26 win over West Virginia, 14 in a 47-27 loss at
Penn State and 14 in a 49-23 victory over Gallaudet. The team
finished 11-8. He scored a team-leading 214 points as a senior.

In 1943, Long was hired to coach CUA. Inheriting a team that not
posted a winning season in eight years, he made the most of his
only year at the helm. The Cards started strong by winning seven of
their first eight contests. His starting center, Fred Rice, Jr.,
was a son of the man who coached Long.

CUA continued to roll and hung a 24-point defeat on Delaware, a
20-point loss on Maryland and a 30-point shellacking on Johns
Hopkins. The Cardinals entered the Mason-Dixon Conference
Tournament with a 16-4 record and defeated host Delaware, 64-37, in
the opening round. CUA’s hopes of winning the event were
dashed with a 48-45 loss at Loyola (Md.).

Despite the setback, the Cardinals were invited to the
eight-team 1944 NCAA Tournament for the first time. They traveled
to New York’s Madison Square Garden and lost to Dartmouth in
the single-elimination tournament. CUA subsequently fell to Temple
in the regional third-place game to finish 17-7.

With World War II raging in Europe and the Pacific and male
enrollment down, the basketball program was suspended in
1944–45. Long did not rejoin the team. In three years on the
varsity and one year coaching, Long helped the Cardinals go 55-24
(.696).